Moments 05.2023

Posted Jun 01, 2023

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We spent most of the month at the beach! We also enjoyed the beginning of summer and the end of spring.

“I can’t remember all the times I tried to tell myself to hold on to these moments as they pass.”

Welcome to “Moments” here on JoyFoodSunshine. At the end of every month I share a recap of our family’s favorite moments! So here it is for May 2023.

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Life Lately

We had a wonderful month. We spent most of it at the beach and enjoying the start of summer!

End of the School Year

As I mentioned last month, Ritch has 2 months off of work in May and June. So I made sure to finish school by May 1st!

The last school related task I had to complete was to throw an end of the year party for our homeschool co op. I opted to rent two bounce houses and let the kids run wild outdoors. Another mom planned some fun games, and it was just a great way to end the year, letting the kids enjoy each other’s company!

After a very long and cold winter, I’m glad to have an extra-long summer this year. These are my girls with their friends at the end of the year party! 🙂

Florida

A few days after the party we packed up and left for a 2 week beach vacation in Florida. We rented a house directly on the beach with its own pool. Get ready for lots of beach pics in this post!

I actually received many questions about flying with so many kids! Our kids travel really well honestly and always have. We let each of them pack a backpack with toys for the flights. I always pack lots of snacks and a lunch in each kids’ bag, so we don’t have to rely on airport food while we travel.

We hold off on any devices for as long as possible on a flight. Instead, the kids color, read, play with the toys they brought, etc. And Ritch and I expect to be fully “on” the entire time, although I did get to read a little bit on each flight this time around, which was a treat!

To get to where we were going was a 10 hour travel day, so we did let them each watch a movie at some point during the travel. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about travel with kids!

It was truly paradise. We stayed on an island (the name of which the kind locals I met asked me to keep a secret) 😉 just outside of Tampa. It was so beautiful and in two weeks we didn’t have even one day of bad weather.

Every day we just woke up and went straight to the beach. We came back to the house for lunch and pool time, then went out to the ocean again. It was exactly what a vacation should be (in my opinion).

We all read a ton – I finished 8 books in the two weeks and it felt so good to have time to rediscover my love for reading fun books! Ritch, Bethany, Gabe and I passed around a few books – and it was really fun to read together as a family! I hope to implement this more during the school year this year!

Every day I woke up and walked on the beach while the sun rose. Since we were on the northernmost point of an island, I had the privilege of watching the sun rise and set every single day over the ocean.

We also walked out and watched the sunset every night, which is always a highlight for me. I love that time in the evening, soaking up the last bit of sunshine and beach for the day.

All the kids totally thrived on the trip, but it was most fun to watch Zach discover the ocean. I loved taking him out on an inner tube and floating in the water with him. Whenever a wave (really a swell) came he said, “Big Wave” and when it went away he said, “More Wave!”

He also loved running after the seagulls and learned how to make a squawking sound that almost exactly mimicked the birds!

One day we took a boat tour around the island, and saw dolphins, found lots of critters on a sandbar and saw a bird nesting island.

On our beach we saw dolphins and manatees every day. One day Bethany and Gabe even swam up and touched a manatee. We found tons of seashells and sand dollars.

We set up a tent in the early morning and enjoyed the shade all day long. This was our setup every single day! We opted to just buy a tent and have it shipped to the place we were staying. We gave it to a local when we left instead of taking it back with us.

We got lots of fun floats for the kids to play with in the ocean and pool. Zach was absolutely terrified of the float pictured below. He would say “Orca, night night” over and over until we took it out of the pool!

Mara was my ocean girl. She played in the waves for hours and never got tired of it. She is the most like me in many ways, and now I can add her love for the beach to that list!

On one of our first days Gabe swam back in from snorkeling with an ornate item in his hand that looked like a vase. Quickly, based on the shape and contents of the item, we realized it was not a vase – but an urn.

Even though he wanted to keep it I explained why it was much better to throw it back into the ocean – and after a little convincing he agreed! haha!

I really did not want to come home – but it was nice to come back to warm weather and the pool opening a few days later.

Mother’s Day on the Beach

Spending mother’s day on the beach was an extra-special treat for me. Whenever anyone asked what I wanted as a gift, I would just say, “a great day on the beach!” I truly didn’t want or need anything else but to enjoy time with my family in my favorite place (and not have to get 6 kids ready for church solo was also a bonus, haha)!

Ritch did an amazing job making me feel seen and loved on Mother’s Day (even though I didn’t need anything but the beach)! He somehow managed to have Garrett’s popcorn with him on the trip (he had it shipped from Chicago to our house and then packed it in his suitcase all without me knowing).

If you’re from IL then you know nothing beats their cheddar/caramel popcorn, and getting to share a big tub of it with my family on the beach was absolutely the best thing ever.

He also got me a beautiful ring with 9 stones, representing my 9 babes (6 in my arms, 3 in heaven). It was so unexpected and I love it so much!

This truly was my favorite Mother’s Day ever.

Summer is here!

The week we got back from Florida the kids started the neighborhood swim team and the pool opened. I’m so ready for summer and plan on enjoying every second of it.

We kicked it off by spending Memorial Day with our friends. We had a blast swimming and eating and enjoying each other’s company!

Naomi turns 8

Somehow it seems impossible that Naomi is 8 years old. She is such a sweet, tender-hearted little girl and we had the best time celebrating her.

She wanted Ritch’s famous homemade waffles for breakfast, and then Shake Shack for dinner. For her activity she chose to go swimming at the pool, and then watch a movie at night after her cake and presents.

She asked for a “surprise animal cake.” So we came up with this lizard cake (her favorite animal). She loved it and was so happy on her special day that she cried at the end because she didn’t want it to be over.

Her siblings also made her feel so loved that day! It was a perfect day for our sweet girl!

Things I’m loving

Here are some things I’ve been loving lately…

This swim suit cover up – I lived in this linen shirt at the beach – both as a swimsuit coverup and just as a shirt to wear to watch the sunset (it got a little chilly with the wind at night). I got the flax color because white is just too hard to keep clean for me. I love that it’s shorter than most linen shirt coverups I’ve seen. I just wish it had a pocket!
Origins tinte d SPF Moisture. I have been using this on my face forever, especially in the summer. I’ve tried other brands and always come back to this one!